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Christmas Gifts for the NHL’s Western Conference

‘Tis the holiday season! Time to celebrate with friends and family, spreading the gift of Christmas cheer! So with that in mind, lets settle back with a festive beverage and take a look at what Santa Gritty has left under the tree for each NHL franchise in the Western Conference. See what Santa might bring the Eastern Conference teams here.

Anaheim Ducks

Julie ‘The Cat’ Gafney: Since reboots are all the rage in Hollywood, even in the land of Disney, why stop now? Ryan Miller’s banged up. John Gibson is playing a ton of minutes, why not add another reliable option at backup?

Arizona Coyotes

A U-Haul: This will help with their upcoming move to the central…part of Houston.

Calgary Flames

A PI: The Flames made a splash last summer signing free agent forward James Neal to a five year deal. By all accounts he’s been missing. They’re near the top in the west. Imagine where they’d be with him…

Chicago Blackhawks

A Roof: Perfect for actually playing indoor games, should they so choose, or replacing the one that currently seems to be falling in on them…

Colorado Avalanche

Dallas Stars

A Christmas Sweater: It’s one of those things you see every year, and every year you wish it was different. It’s not exactly terrible, but you’d certainly like something more fashionable. The Stars have finished 6th in the Central the last two years. They’re currently 5th…

Edmonton Oilers

NHL 19 GM Trade Blocker: New rule for Peter Chiraelli: They install a chip in him so that if an NHL game (any version) doesn’t think the trade makes sense, he can’t make it!

Los Angeles Kings

Fountain of Youth: Trying to cheat time is a somewhat of a tradition in Hollywood so, this may be the only realistic chance the Kings have or recapturing any of the success they had winning two Stanley Cups.

Minnesota Wild

First Round Exit Pass: Do not play round one. Do not get beat out early. Go straight to the second round…

Nashville Predators

A Sports Psychologist: One of the best regular season teams for the last several years, boasting a Vezina calibre goalie who just can’t seem to get it done when it matters most. I don’t care who you root for, if you didn’t empathize with Pekka Rinne sitting alone in the tunnel after getting pulled early in Game 7 against Winnipeg last year, you should ask Santa for a soul.

San Jose Sharks

A Chemistry Set: Not that things have gone terribly thus far, they’re in a playoff spot, but newest Shark Erik Karlsson, (while the analytics are solid) hasn’t put up the numbers we’re used to seeing from the best in the game, so a bit of experimenting couldn’t hurt.

St. Louis Blues

A Personality Test: Many of us (including yours truly) thought the Blues would be, well, a lot better than this. So who are they? Who do they feel like they should be? What direction are they going? What is a Jake Allen? This may be the only way we’ll ever know…

Vancouver Canucks

McBain: Elias Petterson has taken the league by storm and the uber-rookie, while incredible, could stand to pack on a little muscle. He’d help show him the ropes in the gym or at the very least shout slogans at him.

Vegas Golden Knights

A New Opener: Everyone loves a good Vegas show, and last year they provided one hell of an opening act, but like anything else in the entertainment industry, they need to keep it fresh if they want to succeed.

Winnipeg Jets

A Beard Trimmer: The Jets made the conference finals last year, and look poised to make a run again so this would seem like prudent planning. The added benefit in season is it should deter Partick Laine from ever again trying to bring back garden gnome chic.